Just up the road a piece from where we spent the night was Watkins Glenn–famous for two things:  the State Park with hiking up the Glenn (whenever Andy and I hear the word ‘hiking,’ we tend to take a nap until the thought goes away) and the Racetrack.  So up the mountain we went, 4 miles from downtown in the middle of dairy farms, overlooking Lake Seneca was the racetrack.

We got in free with directions to the open grandstand, and cars were running lickety split!  Sportscars:  Porsches and Vets, etc.  Wow!  The sound was great; the speed was fun.  It took them 1.5 minutes to circle the track (not an oval, friends–a squiggly track).

We stood at the top of the grandstand a long while just soaking in the atmosphere; then we moved on up Hwy 14 N along the West side of Lake Seneca.

Saw another big accident in Geneva at an intersection; got by it OK.  Not far North we came upon Lake Ontario, and at Oswego, where they were having a large festival downtown with bands and food tents and parades, we went up to Fort Ontario at the mouth of Oswego River.  We actually stopped and toured the Fort!

We learned about the history of the Fort from colonial times between the British and the French, through the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, pre-WWI for training, and WWII to house Jewish immigrants from the camps in Europe.  Our minds were on overload, but it was fun and somewhat sobering to think of the hard times for the troops living here.

This young man was turned on to military history as a Boy Scout; then he travelled to over a dozen re-enactments across the country (including Shiloh in TN).  He was full of information about the Civil War; get this, he is now 20 years old!  Good kid.

The rest of the day was slow through small towns that seemed to be about 5 miles apart from each other.  But we made it to Watertown, NY for the night.  Hooray for Pizza Hut!